Iconic Gold Coast Roller Rink closing after 64 years

Sunday is the final day to take a spin on the maple floor

August 9, 2011|By Peter Franceschina and Ben Crandell, Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE — The iconic Gold Coast Roller Rink – a fixture in the childhoods of so many South Floridians over the generations – will fade into memory after this week, a passing that is already being mourned by young and old alike.

As a teen, it was the place to be, to hang out with friends, to glide together with your first boyfriend or girlfriend during a couples' skate, with a dark nook in the back corner to sneak a kiss or two. It was a hot spot for the more mature, too, with boogie nights, soul nights, church nights, gay nights, oldsters nights with live organ music, a multicultural gathering place for people of any skin color or background who wanted to strap on a pair of skates and circle the crowded maple floor together.

"There is a lot of history there. It becomes a living, breathing existence. It becomes a happening," said Harold Wieselthier, who bought the rink in 1980 and owned it for two decades. "When I was there, I felt like a caretaker over it. I felt that I owned something that was more of an institution than a business. All the people knew me, all the children knew me. It was a very good feeling."

After a 64-year existence, the rink is the oldest in Florida and one of the longest in continuous operation in the United States. The barn-like building, off Federal Highway north of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, is scheduled to be sold next week and eventually torn down.

Sunday will be the final day for skaters to take a last spin down the vanishing path of nostalgia.

The rink is so beloved, and the memories it carries so cherished, that it has its own dedicated following on Facebook, where old friends trade shout-outs and where, now, lamentations about the rink's recently-revealed closing are piling up.

"Had so many good times there, the pinball machines rocked, the back corner was great for making out, the speed skaters were awesome, and still remember "Slow dancing swaying to the music", my first crush while skating to this song…many great memories there..." wrote Cheryl Harvey Davis.

For more than 40 years, Tuesday night has been gay night at the Gold Coast. Decades ago, it was a surreptitious event, but it came into the open with the gay-rights movement. Tuesdays back then brought in hundreds of patrons, who fanned out to nearby gay bars where their admission ticket was good for a free drink, but the crowd has thinned to a dozen or so in recent years.

Tuesday night, the gloomy skies outside mirrored the mood inside the Gold Coast for the final edition of Intoxiskate, the weekly gay-oriented, straight-friendly party that began in 1968. The hugs and smiles of people seeing each other, in some cases for the first time in years, masked a palpable sadness.

Some fans recalled that in the '60s the party was called Bible Study, drawing crowds dressed as priests and nuns, and was a haven for gays in less-understanding times. The gay community was not just losing a fun night out, they said, but also something iconic, historic.

"It's devastating," said Charles Blondeau, 43, of Lauderhill, as a couple of dozen forty-somethings milled around early in the evening, some with skates tucked under their arms. Blondeau said he has been coming to Intoxiskate since the '90s, when crowds were 300 to 400 strong, and made sure the word got out earlier in the day on FaceBook. "This is the end of an institution, for the community ... and for downtown."

Jeff Childress, who has manned the box office Tuesday nights for more than three decades, said he'll miss old friends, though many have been lost to HIV and AIDS. A man of few words, Childress got emotional in acknowledging that it would be his job to turn out the lights a final time. "It will be sad," he said, looking away.

The rink was where lifelong friendships were forged, love bloomed, and youthful passion led to eventual matrimony. One middle-aged couple who met at the Gold Coast in the mid-'80s exchanged vows there four years later, with everyone, including the minister, rolling on skates.

In the days when racial segregation was the law and the custom in Florida, blacks were welcome to skate there alongside whites. Several nights a year were reserved for the less inhibited, who shed their clothes to skate in the nude. When Wieselthier tended to the rink, he welcomed every race and religion. He even kept a kosher oven to bake pizzas for kosher night events.

"We were part of the community. That is the only way we could survive," said Wieselthier, 73, who sold the land and then the business about 10 years ago and retired to Central Florida.

Dawn Read of Dania Beach, now 46, remembers spending virtually every Friday and Saturday night there as a teen.

"It was a clean, fun teenage hangout, a safe place to go, where all the cool kids go," Read said.